Category Archives: Everyday Heroes

My first inkling that I was an entrepreneur was at about age six. I loved sawing wood and hammering nails. I found some boards in a shed and went to work. As other kids came over, I assigned them tasks – I think we were trying to build a go-cart. As they were all sawing and hammering away, I thought – they’re working for me.

And then there’s Caine’s Arcade. Have you seen the Caine’s Arcade video yet? Here’s a nine year old who loves arcade games, has a skill with cardboard, a very loving dad and a lot of creativity. Caine turned his Dad’s auto parts store into Caine’s Arcade, outfitted with a variety of homemade cardboard games. Despite having no customer, Caine worked at it every chance he got and waited for someone to walk in the door. Then one day filmmaker Nirvan Mullick happened upon Caine’s Arcade and became its first customer. More importantly, Nirvan decided to create a wonderful film, and both the arcade and film have gone viral.

Since then, the Caine’s Arcade Foundation has raised over $170,000 to help foster entrepreneurship and creativity in children.

It is easy to honor champion company founders when their success is obvious. I would like to start a series on this page to recognize heroes – and you know who they are. Those who go completely and totally out of their way to bring about something great in the world.

So let’s talk about Dean Klassman, a hero from Illinois. Dean created and runs a program called Buddy Baseball. It is not his day-job and Dean receives no pay. The Buddy Baseball program pairs one or more able-bodied kids with special needs kids to help them play baseball – and everyone, I mean everyone, scores a home run and gets cheered on. When you actually see a couple hundred people show up for each game, and the joy that it brings to everyone involved, it is easy to be inspired. And isn’t that what our heroes should help us feel?

Who do you know who is an everyday hero? E-mail info@howtheydiditbook.com so that we can feature your pick in an upcoming post.

How fast does technology obsolesce itself? Speedy quick. But of course not everyone’s on the leading edge, and there are many school systems and children who have zero or very limited access to computers. And we all know how far you’ll get in the world if you are not tech savvy.

Luckily there’s a charity called Technology for Humanity that helps solve the problem. Donate computer equipment that you are no longer using and the rest is taken care of. My friend Andy Vass is the champion behind this initiative.

The Author

Robert Jordan is an Inc. 500 CEO and founded Online Access, the first Internet-coverage magazine in the world. After the sale of Online Access, Jordan launched two companies: RedFlash, an interim management team; and interimCEO/interimCFO, a worldwide network for interim, contract, and project executives.

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How They Did It is a site for people with big ideas, projects, and companies, who have found themselves, at one point or another, under the gun, facing obstacles or challenged to push themselves way beyond what they thought they could do.

Go behind the scenes with 45 successful company founders featured in the book How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America, to learn from their early ventures, big gains and mistakes while hearing from new champions every day.